>>>> > - Inventar a roda. (To invent the wheel)
>>>> > To work hard to make something that had already been =
done and
>>>> > could have been used.
>>>> Interesting. We have a similar idiom, "re-invent the wheel", in
>>>> English.
>>>Also in Dutch, as well as "a storm in a glass of water" that means
>>>a trivial upset that's made far too much of.
>> Strange! We have exactly the same expression in French "une =
tempe^te dans
>>un verre d'eau" with exactly the same meaning!
>Oh, I think I've heard that in Spanish too, both "hacer una
>tormenta" (make a storm) and "ahogarse" (drown).
And in Swedish too. "En storm i ett vattenglas" and "=E5teruppfinna =
hjulet", carrying the exact same meaning.
I guess most European languages have these idioms.
It would be interesting to know if they are shared by Indo-European =
langs or by langs spoken in Europe. That is, if it's cultural or =
linguistic. Does anyone know if they exist in Finnish and Basque or =
other non-indo-european langs spoken in Europe? Or if they exist in =
totally different langs like Swahili, Mandarin-Chinese and Quechua as =
well?
Daniel Andreasson
da@mensa.se
http://dalang.cjb.net